MICROSOFT recently made gaming’s largest-ever acquisition, paying an eye-watering $70billion for publisher Activision Blizzard.
This publisher owns a wealth of the world’s most popular video game series, including Diablo, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.
Xbox has a history of adding first-party games to its Game Pass subscription on the day they are released, including Starfield and the upcoming Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
However, it’s not only first-party games that land on the platform on day one, as a number of third-party big-name games like Lies of P can also be played on launch day.
Microsoft has approached a number of publishers in the past about releasing games and launching on Game Pass simultaneously, but a deal isn’t always reached.
Famously, Activision Blizzard was hesitant to launch games on Xbox Game Pass day-and-date as the company was afraid it would harm sales.
However, as Microsoft has now acquired Activision Blizzard, the decision to add the games to Game Pass lies with it.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft has decided to launch the next Call of Duty on Game Pass on the day of release.
Call of Duty games are some of the most profitable in the world, as each annual entry costs $70/£70 and the series has sold more than 400million copies.
It’s one of the best-selling game franchises of all time, and offering it to subscribers for free is a risk.
There is speculation that Xbox will make changes to Game Pass, such as restructuring tiers or increasing the price, in exchange for adding the popular series.
Xbox’s next showcase is scheduled for Sunday, June 9, 2024, when it is rumoured we’ll hear more information.
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